Bumped at your own risk

What do amusement park bumper cars and a trip into space aboard a private rocket have in common?

Comment

By The Record

recordnet.com

By The Record

Posted Jan. 4, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By The Record

Posted Jan. 4, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

What do amusement park bumper cars and a trip into space aboard a private rocket have in common?

If you get hurt, don't bother going to court.

Taking effect this week is AB2243, which limits private space companies' liability from civil lawsuits if customers are injured or die because of the obvious risks.

You wouldn't think you'd need a law governing the liability of space travelers, but as the bumper car case demonstrates, you can never be too sure about your exposure to liability. That and it's possible to sue anyone for anything.

Smriti Nalwa filed a lawsuit after breaking her wrist on the "Rue le Dodge" bumper car ride in 2005 at Great America park in Santa Clara.

The state Supreme Court reversed an appeals court ruling in an opinion published Monday that had found in her favor (the original trial court rejected her claim).

The justices likened jumping in a bumper car so you can bang into things and get banged into to playing football or other sports.

"A small degree of risk inevitably accompanies the thrill of speeding through curves and loops, defying gravity or, in bumper cars, engaging in the mock violence of low-speed collisions," Associate Justice Kathryn Werdegar wrote for the court.

"Those who voluntarily join in these activities also voluntarily take on their minor inherent risks."

The ruling does not absolve parks from their legal duties to maintain the safety of roller coasters, which the court distinguished from bumper cars.

By the way, did we mention that Nalwa was riding with her 9-year-old son, who was driving, when they were hit from the front and then from behind? Nalwa sought to brace herself on the car's "dashboard," and her wrist broke, according to the lawsuit.